Elves and Gatekeeping (4)

‘The curse of corruption!’

Elnar gritted his teeth with a violent mix of anger and despair. It was a terrible calamity that had been left in this world since ancient times.

The most frightening aspect of this curse, which completely transforms a person into a different being, was that it stimulated the desires hidden in the target’s heart.

The resulting rampage ultimately destroys the target’s mind completely, without even the excuse of brainwashing or hypnosis.

And until now, no one was known to have overcome or broken this curse.

“This world is about to perish anyway! Rather than suffering in a decaying world, it would be much better to join us. I’ve saved your daughter, so you should be thanking me!”

The dark elf who shot the cursed arrow, knowing this fact, rubbed salt into their wounds.

“How dare you…!”

Elnar, laying down his daughter who was losing consciousness and gradually changing, charged at the enemy once again. But the enemy didn’t face him head-on, instead dodging slightly and pointing to the surroundings where the elves were gradually being pushed back.

“Look. You don’t deserve to survive. Do you think fighting the same way as hundreds or thousands of years ago would be effective? It’s as clear as day! It’s all because of your complacent way of living!”

The screams and shouts of elves being pushed back by the rampaging dark elves could be heard from all directions. Elnar, breaking out in a cold sweat, couldn’t believe the current situation.

There was no method available. There was nowhere to ask for help, and no way to ask for help.

‘Is this really the end for our clan?’

Hope was gradually fading. The enemy’s words that they couldn’t be eternal and were destined for destruction pierced his heart.

It was clearly impossible to overcome the enemies who had grown stronger due to the influence of erosion with the power they currently possessed.

“…This is!”

However, at that moment, a strong wind that felt somehow special swept over the area. This wind, which artificially twisted the flow of the atmosphere, was definitely not a natural wind.

Elnar was speechless as he saw someone rushing at the shocked dark elf.

The being that rushed in at tremendous speed, as if sliding, using the wind pushing their back and the carved-up ground to ambush the enemy, was a silver-haired girl with the hem of her shameless clothes fluttering.

“You seem to know well what happened thousands of years ago. But you didn’t know about this?”

Isilia smirked at the enemy who was shocked by her spirit magic. The dark elf hurriedly aimed his bow, but her knee had already launched, precisely striking his face.

“Aaaaargh!”

The dark elf, spewing blood from his crushed nose, dropped his weapon and rolled on the ground several times.

Isilia, landing smoothly on the ground, instantly subdued other enemies rushing at her by launching numerous stone spears pulled from the ground.

“High Elf!”

Seeing this, Elnar shouted vigorously without realizing it. Ironically, it was not a leap towards the future, but a guardian of the distant past that existed only in ancient times, who knocked down the strong enemy mocking their stagnation and brought hope in the midst of despair.

Her appearance, which had been so displeasing just this morning, couldn’t have looked more sacred and beautiful now.

“Changing blindly isn’t always good. You need to consider the degree. If you act too radically like you guys, there are side effects, you know.”

“Kuh, kuhak…”

She, enveloped in strong winds all over her body, sneered at the dark elf who was staggering to his feet, bleeding profusely. Born out of dissatisfaction with the elves of the current era, they had tendencies opposite to the elves and were those who unconditionally wanted to go the opposite way of the elves.

Isilia, knowing that opposition for the sake of opposition was ultimately just stubbornness without principle, pointed out that it was wrong.

‘He seems to know something, so I must capture him.’

As she thought this, she racked her brain to capture the enemy. He was the only individual who could speak coherently without going berserk while knowing about the erosion site.

It was clear that he knew something about the anomaly called erosion, which they had only just confirmed its existence, so she had to capture him and extract information.

“Catch him!”

As she ordered the spirits following her, the arrow shot by the enemy was deflected by strong winds, grazing her body, and with one stomp, the ground shook violently as if an earthquake had occurred, cracking and crumbling, leaving the enemy with nowhere to stand.

The enemy, shocked by the spirit magic, hurriedly leapt to avoid the collapsing ground, but the moment he lifted his body into the air, he had lost.

A gust of wind so strong that it rattled heavy stones suddenly swept towards the enemy who could no longer dodge, slamming his body straight into the ground.

It looked like a whirlwind striking down from the sky to the earth.

“—!”

The roaring wind was so fierce that even the screams were barely audible.

The body of the enemy, struggling with his face pressed to the ground under this reverse whirlwind, slowly sank into the earth, and soon only his head was left above ground, coughing painfully.

“Got him.”

Isilia raised the corners of her mouth in satisfaction. It was worth changing direction and rushing here urgently.

* * *

“So, we’ve dealt with everything for now.”

I frowned at the corpses strewn on the ground. As expected, I still couldn’t get used to such bloody scenes.

Most were enemies, but among them were also elves who could be considered allies. Considering the small number of elves, it was truly a great loss.

However, despite such great damage, the number of enemies who ambushed the elf city wasn’t that large. Most had attacked the main force where I was to buy time.

Of course, they must have been confident that they could capture the city even with those small numbers, which is why they pulled such a stunt.

“Ah…”

Elnar, looking as if his soul had been sucked out, finally approached me unsteadily. I had been too busy fighting the enemy to pay attention until now, but when I turned to look at him, I flinched for a moment.

It was as if a zombie was approaching with bright, shining eyes. He looked like he might pounce on me at any moment.

“Wh-What? What’s wrong?”

I hesitated and waved my hand, telling him not to come closer. He then suddenly plopped down on the spot and pleaded with me.

“My daughter, please save my daughter!”

There was a good reason for this. Before I arrived, his daughter Ellua had been hit by a cursed arrow shot by the enemy and was affected by the curse of corruption.

Clicking my tongue, I hurriedly ran to where she was lying.

“This isn’t some zombie movie.”

One of her arms had already been completely taken by the curse, changed to look like the arms of the dark elves. If left like this, soon her entire body would be tainted by the curse, and she would awaken as a dark elf.

“It’s too late. No matter what method is used, we can’t reverse someone who has already been affected by the curse…!”

“Make that guy shut up.”

“Aaaaargh!”

The guy with only his head sticking out of the ground was blabbering as if he had won, watching us. I told the earth spirit to make him shut up, and as the ground tightened around his body, making him scream, I turned my head back.

“Actually, what he’s saying is right. I haven’t found a way to break the curse yet. Do you think we can return someone like him to how they were before being affected by the curse?”

“How can this be… Are you saying it’s impossible even for the great High Elf?”

“But for someone who was just affected like this, who knows.”

Seeing Elnar’s despairing face, I smiled bitterly, knelt on one knee, and placed my hand on Ellua’s chest as she lay on the ground.

In fact, I had already broken this curse a few times before. With the power of the distant past that only I possessed.

“Ugh…”

As I drew out and infused my last remaining power, Ellua frowned and twitched. It was because my power naturally collided with the curse inside Ellua’s body, causing a strong repulsion.

It was a familiar repulsion. I gritted my teeth and somehow maintained my position. If I were pushed back here, the curse would completely envelop Ellua’s body.

“The curse is!”

Elnar, who had been waiting desperately, and the other elves who had gathered around at some point, all stirred at once as they saw what I was doing.

They could see the curse, which had started from her arm and was gradually spreading throughout her body, slowly disappearing.

‘Th-This is a bit tricky.’

In reality, I was flustered as my vision gradually blurred. I instinctively felt that it would be touch-and-go even if I squeezed out all my mental strength to recover, as I was already exhausted from using too much power.

“Just a little more! Please, lend us your strength!”

“High Elf!”

My body staggered regardless of my will, and the surprised elves caught me simultaneously.

Eventually, as my body completely lost strength, the power I was giving to Ellua was also cut off there.

I couldn’t see if it was enough or not. My consciousness, which had overexerted itself, simply blacked out.

“—!”

At the very last moment, I heard the earth spirit shouting.

It seemed my efforts hadn’t been in vain.